Where Do You Stand?

The engaged group of students, faculty and St. Louis businesspeople who came together Thursday for a social media symposium at Washington University heard from a passionate panel of four experts. The group energetically covered everything from the future of news and journalism to Twitter and Second Life.

In preparing, panelist Jason Fiehler of full-service interactive agency infuz confessed he and his team had changed their definition of social media just before the seminar.

Jason’s original definition was:
Social Media - An umbrella term that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words and pictures. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning, as people share their stories, and understandings.

New definition (4/3/08):
Social Media – A publication model in which there is no distinction between audience and author.

Jason says, “I used this definition in the presentation because I decided the original definition didn’t get to the heart of the matter.”

To illustrate, Jason presented a list of well-known brands he feels are Social Media or NOT Non Social Media (according to the new definition):

Social Media  
eBay
YouTube
Twitter 
Digg
Wikipedia

Not Social Media 
Amazon.com
NBC, CBS, etc.
Yahoo Instant Messenger
CNN
MapQuest

Do you agree with Jason’s definitions and examples? What’s your definition? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Also, if you were at the symposium, what did you think?

Thanks!

I invite you to attend the upcoming Social Media Symposium at Washington University in St. Louis.

It’s going to offer a great panel of speakers including Bob Duffy, Jason Fiehler, Scott Granneman, and Kurt Greenbaum, and I’m excited to be moderating the discussion next Thursday evening. 

Of special interest, Bob Duffy will introduce the Saint Louis Platform, a major new online news site being launched by leading journalists in our region (mostly former Post-Dispatch reporters).  According to Bob, The Platform promises to offer in-depth, high-quality news coverage in the best traditions of excellent journalism, along with all the best new media innovations. 

Event details: Free and open to all, Thursday, April 3, 2008, 6:30-8:00pm, Washington University, McDonnell Hall, room 162.

Sue Shellenbarger this week in the Wall Street Journal wrote that companies like AT&T, Intel and Hewlett-Packard are bringing employees back into the office, often after those employees have worked off-site successfully for several years. As a result, some are quitting.

Darn – and just this week our team at Standing Partnership proved it’s efficient and effective to allow our employees to work from anywhere – and still maintain a high level of client service.

We’ve suffered through a long, freezing winter … lots of snow, ice and sleet, with most of it falling during rush hours. We don’t want anyone to be out driving when it’s not safe. However, our commitment to client service means we must be available 24/7.

Some of our recent investments in technology and training allow everyone on our team to work at home (or at Starbucks or wherever) with complete access to their office desktops.

And this week, during a major snowstorm, it worked beautifully.

On inclement days, our leadership team connects early in the morning, then notifies everyone via office-wide voicemail if we’re going to close. I confess I hate my role as “school superintendent,” which requires determining if the weather people may be right or wrong, how bad things may get during the day and whether to open the office or not. Nevertheless on all such days by 6 a.m., we decide what to do and leave the message: “We’re open!” “We’re closed!” “Come in on the snow schedule.”

Frankly, this year we’ve guessed wrong about the weather every time.

So, kudos to our team when we were incorrect again and decided this week’s storm wouldn’t be a big one. Each person took personal responsibility for his or her own work and safety – deciding individually about coming into the office or working from home using our improved technology. We kept everything going without a hitch. “Standing South,” “Standing Northwest” and “Standing Central” all functioned across the St. Louis region, and we communicated easily with our clients, with each other, and with our Charlottesville, Va., office.

As a side note, I had meetings outside the office all day. None cancelled, so I spent my day soaking wet, cleaning 10 inches of snow off my car, and finally stuck behind a stranded bus. Some things you just have to do in person, unfortunately.

How does your company handle inclement weather? What about telecommuting? We’re committed to it, even if it’s not fashionable any more!

Our blog will soon feature a series of posts titled “How I started ‘Standing.’” These short pieces will give readers insight into how the members of our outstanding team came to join Standing Partnership. Since I literally “started Standing,” I figured a back story was in order and that I should go first.

I must start by mentioning my background. I have had a diverse career, and I worked, generally, at some great places. However, the effects of corporate reorganziations in the late 1980s and early 1990s rubbed me the wrong way. So after spending time with two multinational public relations firms, a small advertising agency and two Fortune 500 companies, I teamed with my sister and we branched out on our own. By October 1991, Kelly and I had started Standing Partnership. It was just the two of us, and it often felt like we were “playing office.”

We selected the name of the firm for several reasons. First, we felt like the name showed clients that they could depend on us. It also implied that we would be around a long time. Most importantly, or perhaps most conveniently, “Standing” is our family name. Yes, I’m the PR person formerly known as Cathy Standing. Many people aren’t aware of that fact.

After a fun first year in which Kelly and I handled everything from writing news releases to billing clients, we hired our first intern. Soon after, Kelly left the firm, our intern headed back to school for the fall semester, and I was left running a one-person ship. But that didn’t last long. Standing Partnership grew steadily, and we were up to 16 employees by the end of 1994.

The growth was amazing, but we never lost our core values. You see, when we started Standing Partnership, our goal was to create a great place to work. A place where we could work with clients we respect. And a place, thanks to the people and environment, where we would be excited to work each day. Plus we didn’t want to fall into what we felt was the stereotypical public relations firm. You know the type – 80-hour work weeks, dollars above all else, etc. We’ve never been that type of firm, and we never intend to be. Our core values are at the forefront of everything we do.

I feel like the great place we created to work back in 1991 has held up quite well. Most days, I have not lost sight of who we are or what we are about. On occasion, I still feel like I’m playing office. And I’m still excited to come into the office just about every day.

In between speeches by authors of best-selling business books and humorous “How I Did It” stories of entrepreneurs following their dreams to fame and fortune, I found the real heart and message of the recent Inc. 500 conference.

It wasn’t in the words of a CEO with a multi-million dollar fortune, nor those from a company manager offering a trendy new idea about employee retention. The most compelling seminar in an idea-packed conference showed up in three unassuming employees who spoke about their New York City company. They told in simple, heartfelt words what it means to work for an employer who cares.

Mike Harper, Bruce Howard and Sherry James of CitiStorage joined their boss, Elaine Brodsky, to tell their stories. The company is familiar to many as the focus of CitiStorage CEO’s Norm Brodsky who writes a regular column in Inc. Magazine.

For example, after flunking a mandatory random drug screening, one of the employees got a second chance to take the test a month later. He was the only one in the whole company who passed the second time, has stayed clean and has advanced to account services manager.

A single mother who enjoyed numbers, took advantage of being able to bring a sick child to the office, used the tuition reimbursement program to get a degree, and today is vice president of accounting.

In the audience, the roomful of company leaders – who had been discussing the rising cost of benefits throughout the Inc. conference – grew silent when they heard that CitiStorage actually matches 160 percent of their employees’ 401K contributions. A payroll service CEO in the audience noted he would have to update his software to handle a match like that; he had never had anyone request more than 100 percent.

We all could see the pride in the faces of these three productive employees of CitiStorage. Elaine, their company’s VP, was appreciative but low-key in her acknowledgement of their thanks and loyalty.

Regular Inc. readers will know that Norman and Elaine Brodsky for many months worked to sell their company. The deal fell apart when the prospective owners wouldn’t guarantee to maintain the company’s special culture after closing.

You could also see the obvious relief in those three employees’ faces. They’re likely to recruit their friends to work and all retire together at CitiStorage.

… and we’re really proud about it. 

Standing Partnership was just named to the first-ever Inc. 5,000 list of fastest growing private companies.  

We didn’t rank high enough to make it into the magazine – which has profiled only the top 500 for the past 25 years – but we are listed on a great Web site that Inc. claims contains the “most comprehensive look ever at the most important part of the economy – the entrepreneurial part.”   

The magazine’s summary of the 5,000 and its more in-depth coverage of the top 500 offer an interesting view of how we measure business success.  If you believe these lists, it’s all about revenues, growth rate and other financial measures. 

At the meeting in Chicago last week, we got to see firsthand what all the fast-growing companies and great speakers are talking about.  We can’t wait to become a charter member of the new social network Inc. is creating for U.S. private companies, IncBizNet.   

Maybe through these discussions and groups, we will get beyond looking only at the top line, remember that the bottom line is the one that counts, and think about ways to create great places to work. Then we’ll be able to recruit and retain the great people it takes to serve our clients and customers well enough to deserve to continue to grow. 

Congratulations to everyone who made the list and thanks to Inc’s “army of editors, reporters, and interns [who worked for] almost a full year to located these private companies, solicit their applications, evaluate their eligibility, verify their financial date and interview their leaders.”  (Inc., Sept. 2006, page 187). 

News release is at www.standingpr.com